Seth Davis sheepishly admits he didn’t watch the 1979 NCAA basketball title game between Magic Johnson’s Michigan State monsters and Larry Bird’s Indiana State underdogs, which took place three weeks before his ninth birthday.

“I’m sure it was past my bedtime on a Monday night,” the 38-year-old CBS college basketball studio analyst and Sports Illustrated writer admitted. “But I did know it was coming.”

It came at a time when many wondered about the future of the sport, on both the college and pro level. UCLA’s dominance under John Wooden was over; the NBA had few marketable stars and something of an image problem. According to the subtitle of Davis’ new book, we can look back 30 years, to when this perfect storm occurred, and readily admit that it transformed basketball.

“When March Went Mad” ($26, Henry Holt And Company, 336 pages) goes back to before the March 26, 1979, date of the game that NBC telecast with Dick Enberg, Billy Packer and Al McGuire (with Bryant Gumbel on the pregame). Even with our selective memory, we remember that the contest wasn’t even the most important event in the world that day – hours before tip-off in Salt Lake City, President Jimmy Carter reached a Mid-East peace agreement with Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin.

Yet it was the beginning of a transforming day.

Even without permission from either Johnson or Bird to do this book – they each have their own personal profit-generating reasons – Davis cobbled newspaper accounts and nearly 100 interviews to put into context how things fell into place.

“The goal here was that even though this is about history, I want it to read not like a textbook but a novel,” said Davis. “We all know the impact of the game, and it’s an unbelievable story, but I had no idea how good of a story it was with the four main people involved – Magic, Bird, (Michigan State coach) Jud Heathcote and (Indiana State coach) Bill Hodges – until I pieced it together.”

There’s no revisionist history here with a game that registered a 24.6 Nielsen rating, still the highest ever for a basketball game on any level and unlikely ever to be possibly reached again. This was at a time when ESPN was six months away from flipping on its switch, and the Big East Conference hadn’t been launched.

Davis values conversations he had with Enberg and Packer, which helped put into context what the game was all about then. Along with interviewing such media folk at Don Ohlmeyer, Gumbel, Bob Ryan, Dick Vitale, Dave Kindred, Jim Simpson and Chet Simmons, Davis also includes a telling quote from Bill Rasmussen, the founder of ESPN:

“When I look back at that game, the hype looks bigger than it really was, because there weren’t as many ways to hype a game back then,” Rasmussen says. “Can you imagine today, between the way CBS covers the tournament and how ESPN covers everything, what it would be like? Everybody would know Larry Bird’s shoe size, the length of Johnson’s shoestrings. You might expect an old guy to say this, but it’s kind of a shame.”

Just as you might expect Davis to say it’s not such a shame.

“It’s a reality,” he said. “I’m sure in a lot of ways, if you were to talk to an older gentleman in 1979 about the way things were done in the ’50 s, he’d say it was better back then.

“It’s the price we pay for progress, but there’s a lot to gain from it, too. I watch high school games on TV now. I’m Mr. TiVo with college basketball so much that my wife can’t get to see ‘American Idol.’ I download games on my computer. But I haven’t lost the delayed gratification and sense of history, and during the NCAA tournament, so many times we see a player or a team for the first time, and it ends with that one-game scenario.

“Regrettably, the days (of 1979) won’t happen again. There’s some magic and mystery to delayed gratification. But the fact it won’t happen again sure helps me with my mortgage.”

MIKE LOCKERT (1965-2009)

He grew up as a USC football fan but found a job as a Notre Dame broadcaster. That already put him in a precarious position.

Then, if you’re an African- American man from Los Angeles working as a play-by-play man in South Bend, Ind., and your sport of expertise is hockey, dedication to the craft and love of the sport must make things even a little more fun when you get double- takes from those around you.

Mike Lockert enjoyed that part of his life.

Those who remember his work in the early stages of his broadcast career as a sports-talk radio in these parts were deeply saddened to hear that Lockert passed away in his sleep last Friday of an apparent heart attack.

He was 43.

The Cal State L.A. grad and Southern California native was the radio voice of the nationally top-ranked Irish hockey team for the last seven seasons and was inspired to do the sport because almost by accident.

“The game was a rush and I was taken in by the words and the pictures,” Lockert wrote in a story about himself last year for a hockey website. “It was around that time in my life I realized that what Kings announcer Bob Miller was doing was exactly what I wanted to do.”

Said Miller: “His passing was a complete shock since I had just visited with him at a Kings game around Christmas and he seemed to be his usual upbeat self.

“I appreciate the kind words he credited to our Kings broadcast but it was his perseverance and dedication to his craft that enabled him to be a success in broadcasting.”

Lockert hosted some sports-talk shows in L.A., doing UCLA pre- and post-game as well as Clippers halftime reports at 1260-AM and the old 1150-AM in the early ’90 s. He left L.A. a few years back doing minor-league hockey and baseball before landing at Notre Dame.

“The journey for me has seen its ups and downs, but it is a journey that I would not want to detour in any way, shape or form,” he wrote about his career choice. “The people I have come in touch with, from coaches, players, sports information directors and colleagues has made this part of my journey well worth the trip and I look forward to traveling this road a little while longer.”

Funeral services are Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Normandie Church of Christ (1655 West Manchester Blvd., L.A.). Condolences can be sent to Mike’s parents, William and Barbara, at 3601 N. Lincoln Avenue, Altadena, CA 91001.

WHAT SMOKES

==The streak has remarkably reached 16, yet there are warning signs that the well-supplied well of guests who happen to be connected by the first name Rex who have appeared on Jim Rome’s syndicated sports-talk show (heard in L.A. on KLAC-AM 570) the last three weeks could run dry soon. Former Ohio State quarterback Rex Kern continued the consecutive Rome-hosted show streak on Thursday; Rex Brown, ex-bass player for the band Pantera, is scheduled to appear today. “I don’t see it going much farther past 20,” Rome has warned listeners. Sounds like a challenge for more suggestions. For the record, ex-NBA player Rex Morgan, ex-Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman and former Pepperdine basketball standout and NBA coach Rex Hughes made it on this week. It began Feb. 11 with ex-NBA player Rex Chapman and rolled forward with New York Jets coach Rex Ryan, Angels broadcaster Rex Hudler, USF basketball coach Rex Walters, “Entourage” actor Rex Lee, UC Davis basketball coach Rex Peters, GolfChannel.com writer Rex Hoggard, Sacramento Kings assistant coach Rex Kalamian, MMA fighter Rex Richards, former NFL lineman Rex Tucker, Louisville tennis coach Rex Ecarma and Cleveland Browns lineman Rex Harnot. The joy of Rex must not end any time soon. “Keep the streak goin’,” Kern said Thursday as his interview ended. You know, Oklahoma State has radio broadcasts of its wrestling events? The play-by-play guy: Rex Holt. Just throwin’ it out there.

==NBC announced Thursday that Al Michaels will host the weekend and weekday studio coverage for the 2010 Winter Games from Vancouver, which gives him about 50 hours of work, but probably no play-by-play on hockey (that’s Doc Emerick’s gig). There is a curling broadcast role open. Bob Costas will probably do the prime-time hosting, with Jim Lampley involved in some hosting on the cable side somewhere.

WHAT CHOKES

==Former Fox MLB studio host Jeanne Zelasko was inexcusably left out of the group of six broadcasters who the Dodgers invited to a play-by-play tryout during March, their attempt to find someone for a package of 40 TV road games. A forward- thinking organization couldn’t figure out that by including her in the mix, they’d elicit some positive reaction? Listening to a couple of games this week showcase 28-year-old Ben Wagner, a poor man’s Matt Vasgersian currently with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons, any recognizable voice in the So Cal market who missed this cut must really reassess his or her future. What are the Dodgers trying to achieve here, if not a search to replace Vin Scully someday?

Tom Hoffarth is a freelancer. He had been with the Daily News/Southern California News Group since 1992 as a general assignment sports reporter, columnist and specialist in the sports media. He has been honored by the Associated Press for sports columnists and honored by the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association for his career work. His favorite sportscaster of all time: Vin Scully, for professional and personal reasons. He considers watching Zenyatta win the Breeders' Cup 2009 Classic to be the most memorable sporting event he has covered in his career. Go figure that.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.